underthetree wrote:I really love Keralan food. If you have a halfway decent Indian grocery nearby it's surprisingly easy to replicate the flavours at home. Unfortunately my better half loathes curry leaves but I've found that lemon balm (melissa) makes a very good substitute.

I have a similar problem - cooking for someone who is oversensitive (IMO ) to chili and who has a (genuine) problem with garlic. I do still cook a lot of Asian food - Indian, Thai, Vietnamese - but can't use pre-prepared curry pastes. I still do okay, by combining the separate spices myself. It takes a bit more time and sometimes I cheat by adding a bit of chili to my plate after serving ...

underthetree wrote:I really love Keralan food. If you have a halfway decent Indian grocery nearby it's surprisingly easy to replicate the flavours at home. Unfortunately my better half loathes curry leaves but I've found that lemon balm (melissa) makes a very good substitute.

I have a similar problem - cooking for someone who is oversensitive (IMO ) to chili and who has a (genuine) problem with garlic. I do still cook a lot of Asian food - Indian, Thai, Vietnamese - but can't use pre-prepared curry pastes. I still do okay, by combining the separate spices myself. It takes a bit more time and sometimes I cheat by adding a bit of chili to my plate after serving ...

Kim

The Vaisnavs ( The Krishna movement is their populist wing ) do not use any alliums ( onion, garlic leeks ). They use instead a dried resin called asafoeteda ( " Hing " in Hindu/Urdu ). In its raw state is has an unpleasant smell, but when cooked it gives a nice savouriness to a dish which compensates for any lack of garlic etc.

underthetree wrote:I really love Keralan food. If you have a halfway decent Indian grocery nearby it's surprisingly easy to replicate the flavours at home. Unfortunately my better half loathes curry leaves but I've found that lemon balm (melissa) makes a very good substitute.

I have a similar problem - cooking for someone who is oversensitive (IMO ) to chili and who has a (genuine) problem with garlic. I do still cook a lot of Asian food - Indian, Thai, Vietnamese - but can't use pre-prepared curry pastes. I still do okay, by combining the separate spices myself. It takes a bit more time and sometimes I cheat by adding a bit of chili to my plate after serving ...

Kim

The Vaisnavs ( The Krishna movement is their populist wing ) do not use any alliums ( onion, garlic leeks ). They use instead a dried resin called asafoeteda ( " Hing " in Hindu/Urdu ). In its raw state is has an unpleasant smell, but when cooked it gives a nice savouriness to a dish which compensates for any lack of garlic etc.

Thanks, Simon. I had heard of its name but never known why or where it was used. I will have to look into it.

M.G. wrote:Are the sweets that sweet in India or is that an American thing?

Don't know about America, but in the places in the north of India where I've been the sweets were incredibly sweet. Also in the chai the sugar is extremely overdosed. On the other hand they don't eat gummibears and stuff like that in India.

"Forget about being clever, and simply remain." Guru Rinpoche, Treasures from Juniper Ridge

In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP) area of Pakistan, people hang a small bag of asafoetida around the neck or tie it around the arm to keep safe from seasonal, bacterial and viral illnesses, the efficacy of which might have more to do with repelling potentially infected people rather than the disease-causing organisms themselves.

If you type for 'Brahmin recipes' you'll get tons using asafoetida. I love it (doesn't smell bad to me!) and use it quite often when I'm too lazy to prep garlic and onions. Also if you're making mild food, instead of putting in red pepper on your dish, try serving it with a nice spicy pickle! I've made my own lemon pickles and they're very easy....Hmm I have tons of curry leaves in my freezer but now is the time to get my curry plant and keep it alive. I know I can...I don't care for drumstick either, what's fun is reading foog blogs and seeing (in my case) US greens such as collards, brocolli etc being substituted in Kootu so look around it's a fab cooking world and can be very healthy too.gasshoRoryps the one dessert I do enjoy is carrot halwa mmm:)

In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP) area of Pakistan, people hang a small bag of asafoetida around the neck or tie it around the arm to keep safe from seasonal, bacterial and viral illnesses, the efficacy of which might have more to do with repelling potentially infected people rather than the disease-causing organisms themselves.

oh dear, it's not that funny. Hanging asafoetida around the neck is a rough equivalent of hanging garlic around the neck for healing in the western paridigm. I'm not so familiar with hanging it on the neck, but they were onto something. Ofc, there are several things to consider.... does the method in fact work... and does it work with ppl who think it is a so-called humorous thing. The rain falls where it will.

@Kim... so you really think it has to do with repelling potentially infectious people? IMO, let's talk about how this societal and spiritual immune system does exactly that... it repells the undesirable; we don't need garlic or asafoetida! At the end of the day, kiss the leper and call me in the morning. Then we shall walk in the land of shalom.

ps: I like to make any variation of split mung bean soup/dal.... asafoetida is a wonderul addition along with cumin, dash turmeric and coriander.... ofc, curry! Know what your are doing!